The Church as the sum of its leaders

You have just seen two of our members ordained last Sunday.  It always strikes me how weighty the questions are that we must ask them before we ordain them.  It must scare them.  As you know, the elders on session are the ones that make the final call on the decisions our congregation has to make.  But leadership is not reserved for them.  You can help lead us if you want and many of you do.

During the session “retreat” in early February I asked the session members: “As leader how would you want to be different and they responded by saying some of the following: be a better listener, be patient, be welcoming, be outgoing, be grounded, be genuine, not be determined by others. When I asked what they wanted to do as leader of our congregation they said some of the following: enhance Sunday School,  organize the kitchen, open up Kansha house for temporary stay of a homeless family, do outreach, help and organize transportation for the aged, involve visitors, handout food, help people tell their stories. Then I asked what they get energy from and these are the things they said: from other people, from their children, from “less stress,” from good leadership, from strong motivation, from values, from faith and from purpose. Next I asked them what their energy was for as leaders of the church and they answered: to fix things (2x), to get things done, make connections, to change the world for God, to widen horizons and to share wisdom.  Finally I asked them: how do you see our church at this moment.  These were the results: food-oriented, welcoming, inclusive, multi-ethnic, mainline Presbyterian, musical, family oriented, fairly liberal, caring, forgiving and confidential. We did leave the meeting with a question mark.  The question mark was the answer to: What do you want this church to do?  In the past we have always answered this question too quickly.  Now we want to take our time.  We would also want you to be involved in that process. I will usually let you know what I am thinking, but now you know a little of what your leaders are thinking.

Many books about leadership are published every year with new insights. There is always some great solution, but in reality there often are no easy answers.   I can tell you that one thing I have learned about leadership of the church over the years: that the personality and outlook of a congregation (yes I do think churches have personalities) is what the combined leaders/active members in a congregation have in common in their personalities and outlook.  That is the spirit you catch when you visit a new congregation.  I am sure you will have felt the difference between one church or another.  In addition the congregation will attract people with similar inclinations.  I think we have a kind congregation that attracts kind people, but I am in no way objective and therefore I won’t say more about that here.

I would like to ask you to ponder for yourselves the questions I asked the session members.  How would you want to be different, what would you like to do differently, where do you get your energy and what is it for , how do you see our congregation, and what would you want us to do at the dawn of our new century?  Your calling might be the church’s! Thanks for your leadership. May God bless our ministry.  Aart